Netflix’s Hostage to the Devil – The Case of Father Malachi Martin

It was with great interest that my wife and I viewed on Netflix the documentary, “Hostage to the Devil,” directed by Marty Stalker because of my great admiration for the literary works of the late Father Malachi Martin. Martin, of course wrote a book with the same title in 1975 to set the record straight after the popularity of William Blatty’s movie “The Exorcist” (1973) concerning this dark and dangerous world. To many, Father Martin was an enigma, others a villain and to people like myself, a prophet.

The documentary focuses on Fr. Martin’s work as an exorcist but also explores his life through candid interviews with his friends and enemies. Fr. Martin is no less controversial now in death than he was in life when he was a New York Times best-selling author. Fr. Martin, born in Ballylongford, County Kerry, Ireland, assisted in transcribing the Dead Sea Scrolls and was a confidant to Cardinal Bea during the tumultuous years of Vatican II while he was a cleric in Rome. The circumstances around his departure from the Jesuits has always caused questions but after his death it was confirmed by Fr. Vincent O’Keefe, the Vicar General of the Jesuit Order at the time of his departure that Fr. Martin received dispensation from his vows of obedience and poverty but retained his vow of chastity.

Martin’s life is a metaphor for the pitch battle for the soul of the Catholic Church after the Second Vatican Council; he was vilified for his frank and candid critique of the state of the Church in the aftermath of the Council and what the progressives did to it in the name of the “Spirit of Vatican II”. He dared take on the Jesuits in a book of the same name but with the subtitle, The Society of Jesus and the Betrayal of the Roman Catholic Church. This book chronicles the adoption by the Order of liberation theology, which was a scourge to the Church in Latin America and which its adherents hoped to spread throughout the universal Roman Catholic world.

Martin’s most prophetic work is Windswept House that he called a work of “faction” in the style of Taylor Caldwell, the author of Dear and Glorious Physician (1958). The names of the characters provide hints to who they were in real life. Written in 1997, Windswept House‘s main character is a “Slavic Pope,” surely meant to be Pope John Paul II. It ends with that Pope contemplating a papal resignation, which of course played out in the pontificate of Benedict XVI. Windswept House also sadly prophesied the pedophile scandal that rocked the Church in the years to follow.

The documentary also takes a fascinating look at Fr. Martin’s work as an exorcist. The Church, especially the progressives after Vatican II, took an unfavorable view of such “hocus pocus,” especially the Rite of Exorcism. Stakler looks into this debate, and other controversies, through the prism of Martin’s life.

The film is a New York story, Martin’s home in his latter years, and as such, is sprinkled with colorful characters including a former CIA agent and NYPD officer who were confidantes, assisting Martin in his work as an exorcist. These two men, who provide critical first-hand accounts of his life, portray Martin as a man of great charisma, charm, and faith. The film’s treatment of Martin’s death provides its most gripping moments — the viewer may well feel the immense pain and sorrow of these two close friends.

The filmmaker’s choice of antagonist was critical to the piece. Robert Kaiser, a former Jesuit himself spoke of Martin as a rogue and shyster. In 2002, he wrote a book called Clerical Error: A True Story (2002) where he accuses Fr. Martin of having an affair with his wife. It is telling to me that Mr. Kaiser during his writing career railed against John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and the Church’s stance on sexual morality. It seems Fr. Martin was in good company being the target of the late Mr. Kaiser’s words. Those closest to Father Martin deny these accusations leveled by Kaiser and note he only made them after Fr. Martin’s death.

Without giving away the end, the circumstances surrounding Martin’s untimely demise are a mystery, much like his life. When one listens to Father Martin’s old interviews with Canadian Catholic journalist Bernard Janzen or his appearances with Art Bell on Coast to Coast, Martin’s love for Christ and the Church are clearly evidenced. Martin emphasized the crucial distinction between the institutional Church, which he thought was self-destructing, and the Mystical Body of Christ, which he cherished and loved.

I recommend this thought provoking documentary for anyone serious about his or her faith. It is raw, scary but also a great insight into the battles waged on the mystical side and within the Church itself.

It’s not a film for the faint of heart: Father Malachi Martin did not fear making claims that shook the foundations, and that is his legacy which increasingly appears credible.

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CONFIRA OS TRÊS E TIRE MELHORES CONCLUSÕES A RESPEITO DE SEU EVENTUAL VATICINIO NO WINDSWEPT HOUSE.1 - Em 1888, naquele episodio conhecido do papa Leão XIII, o diabo teria pedido a Jesus 75 anos para tentar destruir a Igreja e lho foi concedido, dando em 1963.Noutro local, constaria que teria pedido mais 25 anos, e Jesus o aceitou, também.2 - *Windswept House describes a satanic ritual - the enthronement of Lucifer - taking place at Saint-Paul's Chapel inside Vatican City, on June 29, 1963. The book gives a depiction of high-ranking churchmen, cardinals, archbishops and prelatees of the Roman curia, taking oaths signed with their own blood, plotting to destroy the Church from within. It tells the story of an international organized attempt by these Vatican insiders and secular internationalists to force a pope of the Catholic Church to abdicate, so that a successor may be chosen that will fundamentally change orthodox faith and establish a New World Order.Ligue os fatos e conclua mais a respeito do Pe M Martin.3 - "RATZINGER NÃO PODIA VENDER NEM COMPRAR".https://www.gloria.tv/article/ZJ8dTJkgoxMU1ZiW4owQb8eSn* Wikipedia.

Fairytales don’t tell children that dragons exist; children already know that dragons exist. Fairytales tell children that dragons can be killed. - G.K. Chesterton

Find the courage to proclaim Christ, … and the unchanging truths which have their foundation in Him. These are the truths that set us free! They are the truths which alone can guarantee respect for the inalienable dignity and rights of each man, woman and child in our world – including the most defenseless of all human beings, the unborn child in the mother’s womb. - Pope Benedict XVI

God does not choose the qualified. He qualifies the chosen - Madre Teresa de Calcutá

God gave us ten commandments, not ten thousand. Why? Why not a more complete list of specifics? Because he wanted freedom and variety. Why do you think he created so many persons? Why not just one? Because he loves different personalities. He wants his chorus to sing in harmony, but not in unison - Peter Kreeft

How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been; how gloriously different are the saints. - C.S Lewis

I would like to remind everyone, especially everyone engaged in boosting the world’s economic and social assets, that the primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is man, the human person in his or her integrity - Papa Bento XVI

If medieval people talked less about their own dignity, it is because they were more concerned about God´s dignity; if modern people talk more about it, it is because they are more concerned with themselves - Edward Feser

If you find a perfect parish, you go ahead and join her, it won't be perfect anymore - Matthew Kelly

In fact, a fine distinction could be a flat contradiction - G.K.Chesterton

It is true that I am of an older fashion; much that I love has been destroyed or sent into exile. G. K. Chesterton

Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith - Alexis de Tocqueville

Mittite in Dexteram Navigii Rete, et Invenietis (João 21,6)

Multiculturalism is the doctrine which says that no culture can ever claim precedence over any other. So there can be no hierarchy of values, and no society can uphold its historic traditions and values against any challenge - Melaine Phillips

Napoleon himself announced to the Pope Pius VII that he was going to destroy the Church, to which Pius VII responded, “Oh my little man, you think you’re going to succeed in accomplishing what centuries of priests and bishops have tried and failed to do!”

Nowadays the devil has made such a mess of everything in the system of life on earth that the world will presently become uninhabitable for anybody but Saints. - Jacques Maritain

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience - Clive.S. Lewis

One was the view that stars are personal beings, governing our lives (astrology); the other the general theory that men have one mind between them (marxism); a view obviously opposed to immortality; that is, to individuality - G.K Chesteron

The difficulty of explaining “why I am Catholic” is that there are 10,000 reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true. - GK Chesterton

The divide in Western civilization isn't between rich and poor, red vs. blue, or the uneducated vs. the educated. It's God. God is the dividing line. You either believe God loves each of us and grants us inalienable rights or you believe that everything is negotiable including life - Matthew Archbold

The obedient are not held captive by Holy Mother Church; it is the disobedient who are held captive by the world! - Diane M. Korzeniewski

The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him - Chesterton

The two most destructive heresies — and the two most popular — are angelism, confusing man with an angel by denying his likeness to animals, and animalism, confusing man with an animal by denying his likeness to angels - Peter Kreeft

The whole of history is a struggle between two loves: love of oneself to contempt of God; love of God to contempt of self, in martyrdom. We are in this struggle.

There are only three kinds of people: those who seek God and have found Him — these are wise and happy; those who seek God and have not yet found Him — these are wise and unhappy; and those who live without either seeking God or finding Him — and these are both unwise and unhappy. - Blaise Pascal

There are two sorts of people who might be tempted to think of death as a friend: those who think the nature of the human person has nothing to do with the body, and those who think it has everything to do with the body; in short, Platonists and materialists - Edward Feser

To avoid therefore the evils of inconstancy and versatility, ten thousand times worse than those of obstinacy and the blindest prejudice, we have consecrated the state - Edmund Burke on French Revolution

To be or not to be – that is the question”, then the massive medieval doctor (St. Thomas) does most certainly reply in voice of thunder, “To be – that is the answer" - Chesterton